TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan has abandoned plans to purchase advanced anti-submarine helicopters from the United States, saying the price is too high.
On Thursday, the self-ruled island’s defense minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told the parliament that the chopper deal was unlikely to make headway as the deal was too expensive.
“The price is too high, beyond the scope of our country’s ability,” he told the lawmakers.
Local media earlier this year had reported that the deal could fall through as Washington concluded that the choppers were not in line with the island’s “asymmetric warfare” needs.
The self-ruled territory – claimed by Beijing – had plans to buy 12 MH-60R anti-submarine helicopters, built by the Sikorsky unit of major U.S. weapons maker Lockheed Martin Corp.
Two other arms purchases from the U.S. by Chinese Taipei – M109A6 Medium Self-Propelled Howitzer artillery systems, and mobile Stinger anti-aircraft missiles – have also been delayed due to Washington’s efforts to send more weapons to Ukraine.
The Raytheon Technologies’ Stingers are in high demand in Ukraine – where they have been used against Russian aircraft – amid reports that U.S. supplies of the missiles have shrunk and there are significant hurdles to producing more of the anti-aircraft weapons.
The U.S. has so far shipped more than 1,400 Stingers to Ukraine in recent weeks.
Chiu, however, insisted that Taipei had already signed the contract for the Stingers and paid for them and that it would press Washington to deliver them.